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USB Type-C connector, cable, rendering

The USB Promoter Group has announced that the greatest invention in the known universe — the reversible Type-C USB connector — is finally ready for mass product. The USB Implementers Forum will now take the Blazon-C spec and start building devices, cables, and adapters that support the new reversible connector. We could brainstorm seeing Type-C USB devices over the next few months, but considering the lack of backwards compatibility (an adapter is required), and the fact that the existing Micro-USB connector is mandated as the standard mobile phone charging connector by several governments around the globe, it may take a trivial while for Type-C to reach disquisitional mass.

The reversible Type-C connector is roughly the same size as the existing Micro-USB connector at the bottom of your smartphone, but it's reversible. If that wasn't plenty, in that location will as well be new USB cables that take a Type-C connector at both ends, finally giving consumers the feeling that they are the ones in accuse, not some pesky cable. Just have a moment to imagine it: In a few months, you'll be able to grab a USB cablevision and just plug it in without a care in the world. I'm not entirely sure why we had to wait fifteen+ years for such a breakthrough, but I'm glad we're finally at that place.

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The Type-C connector, which has 18 pins, is essentially 2 USB 3.i SuperSpeed connectors (which have the standard four pins, plus five more to enable 10Gbps connections). If y'all plug the connector in i way, the pinnacle set of pins are used; if you plug it in the other way, the bottom fix of pins are used. It'due south pretty simple. The Type-C connector also supports the new USB Ability Delivery spec (also finalized today), which allows for up to 100 watts to be carried over a USB cable (enough to charge a laptop or power most peripherals, including a monitor).

Equally you have probably worked out, you sadly can't plug a Type-C plug into older USB sockets — but it is possible to create a standard Type-A-to-Type-C cablevision (from your older PC to a new Type-C smartphone perhaps). The new USB Type-C spec also outlines the creation of adapters — for case, from Micro-USB to Blazon-C. Every bit you can see in the various diagrams below, the new xviii-pin Type-C all the same has the original 4 USB pins — they're just in a different position. The USB Promoter Grouping says the Type-C connector is rated to the aforementioned 10,000 cycles as Micro-USB, though I'thou sure the more than-complex blueprint and smaller pins might crusade some issues.

usb-type-c-adapter usb-type-c-to-micro-b usb-type-c-cable-to-original-type-a

With the Type-C spec finalized, it now comes down to the USB-IF to actually implement the sockets, plugs, cables, adapters, and devices. The problem is that at that place are billions of existing USB devices and cables that will need adapters and new cables to work with new Type-C devices. It'southward a lot like when Apple released the Lightning connector, but on an even grander scale. Further exacerbating the issue is the fact that China, the Eu, and the GSMA have all agreed that new mobile devices use Micro-USB for charging — though information technology might be as simple equally including a Micro-USB-to-Type-C adapter with every new smartphone.

Considering just how happy reversible USB cables would make consumers, though, I imagine information technology'll exist adopted pretty speedily. Hopefully we'll start to run into some motherboards with the Blazon-C socket in the next few months, so some cables and adapters soon after that. Nosotros'll probably encounter the beginning Type-C smartphones in 2015. Expect some of these Type-C connectors to back up the new Power Commitment spec, likewise (especially in laptops and desktops). In the meantime, of course, be sure to read our guide on how USB charging works, and how to avoid bravado up your phone.